Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Q: Gurudev, Gurudev, what is the reason behind Vitamin D and B12 deficiency? Most of the ladies are facing this issue. What is the solution other than medicines?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

It is mainly because of the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers in farming. It has caused our soil to become anemic (low iron content in the soil).
You get Vitamin D from the sun. If you are sitting indoors most of the time, then you should take tablets.

You need to switch from inorganic food to more organic food. Also you should avoid food with MSG (Mono Sodium Glutamate, a kind of preservative). They use it in foods like Maggi noodles, etc., to enhance the flavor. Many products have this today. It stays in the body and prevents sunlight from getting absorbed in your body. As far as possible, you should avoid all these kind of packaged and preserved food. It has already been discarded in many countries in the world, but in India it is still being used. More people need to know about this. Eat more and more organic food, as much as possible.

Q: Gurudev, Gurudev, I am a cancer patient and I want to come out of it. What do I do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Just keep up that strong will to come out of it, and you will surely come out of it. Meditate and do pranayama regularly.You can consult Dr. Nisha Manikantan here and she will guide you completely about your diet and what all you need to do. I have seen so many people suffering from cancer where in the doctors had told them that they had only six months more to live. But when they came to the Ashram and practiced the Sudarshan Kriya and pranayama, they regained their health and are still alive today; even after 20 years of having been diagnosed with cancer.Don’t just keep your faith in a pill. Have faith in yourself, and know that there is an eternal consciousness within you. It is so powerful that it alone makes a single cell grow into a full infant in the mother’s womb. It is what is responsible for all the growth, so it definitely knows how to repair and heal the body also.

Q: Gurudev, Dear Gurudev, my life appears meaningless to me. What should I do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Life appears to be meaningless when you are focused only on yourself. If you constantly keep thinking, 'What would happen to me? What do I want? I want this and I want that. When will I get it?' Then life will appear meaningless. But when you know that you are here to give something to the people around you, to give something back to society, and to discover a higher truth, then life becomes meaningful.

Both saturation of pleasure and deprivation of pleasure can cause you to feel that life is meaningless. When you take your eyes off that and reflect upon 'What can I do for others? Who am I?' Then suddenly you see that a fountain of love and joy springs from within, and all values naturally start flowing in life. This is a good transition period for you.

Q: Gurudev, Gurudev, it is often said that these are bad times for good people. We see this in our society that many times the wrong people end up winning and dominating others and come out as winners. They seem to be enjoying their life. What should we do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Yes, you said it yourself. They only seem to be enjoying their life, but it is very temporary. See, when someone has to suffer greatly, they first climb to a greater height and then they fall. All such people who rise through wrong deeds or by having wrong intentions ultimately end up being very miserable. They are not able to sleep in peace at night, nor are they able to be at peace during the day. Their fall from greatness is so sharp that it completely shatters them. You on the other side, are content with yourself and get and sleep peacefully.

See, you cannot simply say that the people who are good keep suffering, or keep going through difficult times. People suffer or face difficult times because of their own foolishness, and because of their ignorance.If someone says, 'I am very good and noble', and then goes and puts his hand in fire, then he is bound to get burnt. And when you put your hand in fire, it will burn and hurt immediately, not anytime later.Sometimes you feel that you have not harmed anyone in your present life, or even thought ill of anyone, yet you are suffering and going through misery. This question is very common.We often have a very limited understanding of our own life and think that life is just limited to this short time span of 50-60 years. If you look back, you will realize that somewhere you have sown the seeds for a tree of thorns, so today or sometime later you will surely have to reap the thorns of that tree.

See, there are two types of karma:1. Those that immediately give fruit2. Those that yield fruit sometime laterFor example, if you place your hand in a fire, you will immediately get burnt, right now, not tomorrow or anytime later But if you sow a mango seed today, it will take ten years for it to grow into a tree. You will be able to reap the fruits of the mango tree only after ten years of hard work. In the same way, some karmas yield their fruits almost instantly, while some take time to bear fruit.But do not think that every problem or suffering that you go through is only because of your actions from past lifetimes. Some of it also comes because of the foolishness and ignorance you have in the present lifetime also.

To free yourself from the results of past actions, you should regularly practice your sadhana. It definitely helps to nullify the bad influences of the past karmas. But at the same time, we should act with intelligence as well.Do not think that 'Oh, I am so noble and good-natured, so only good things should happen to me', no. You should also have a presence of mind and use your intelligence from time to time before you act. Do not keep your intellect locked up somewhere. Use it wisely.

Q: Gurudev, Gurudev, how to love unconditionally in this world full of conditions?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Do not try to love. You cannot force yourself to love, that is simply impossible. Just let go and be natural. Know that there are limitations in this world. People have their own limitations, their own prejudices. We have to live in this world with all types of people. That is one of the principles of The Art of Living: Accept people and situations as they are.You should always remember that people’s ideas, emotions and opinions keeps on changing. Everything changes. Many friends become enemies and enemies become friends.

See, you are friends with somebody and suddenly for no obvious reason they become your enemy. You have not done anything wrong to anyone, yet they turn out to be unfriendly towards you. How many of you have had this experience?Sometimes people whom you do not even know will come to you help. You have not done them any great favor, yet they help you. On the other hand, people for whom you cared a lot and helped a lot suddenly become your enemy.Has this not happened to you? (Many in the audience raise hands).This friendship and animosity works on some deeper principle called karma. If your time is good, your worst enemies also start behaving like your friends. And if your time is not good, then your closest friends too will misunderstand you and start behaving like your enemies. When you see all this from a bigger perspective, then great inner strength dawns within you and you are able to smile through any situation, whatever it may be.

See, 35 years ago when we conducted yoga and meditation sessions in countries abroad, they would not respect it much. They would think that the people who practiced these techniques were crazy.Seeing people with ash smeared all over their body and standing on one leg, or doing a head stand, etc., would seem unnatural to them. There was so much prejudice back then, I tell you. Yoga was thought as not to be for the common person. Respected people in society would not do yoga.In those days, yoga did not get public and political acceptance. No religion or spiritual tradition can survive for long if it does not gain public and political acceptance of the land. So, for many years people thought that only those who are crazy would do yoga. People used to be scared of yoga and spiritual practices. It took many years to overturn this trend of thought. We have so many teachers who have gone from place to place to spread the message of yoga and meditation. Thousands of Art of Living teachers worked throughout the world for this.

Swami Paramhamsa Yoganandaji began the trend towards meditation and spiritual practices in those days. After him, Shri Maharishi Mahesh Yogiji also contributed immensely to the growth of spirituality. He took great initiative to save the people from drug addiction which had become popular because of the Hippy Wave at that time, especially in the Western countries. He slowly encouraged more and more people to turn towards yoga and meditation to find relief and happiness. But when he began to speak about levitation and other phenomena, people again got scared and wary about these practices. Then around 1980 or so, people’s mindset changed and they began to take interest in yoga. Many schools of yoga developed during this time.So over a period of time, this outlook slowly began to change.

The scenario today is so different, with people across 152 nations actively practicing yoga and meditation. More and more people are finding joy and happiness through these practices. Today, in all big advertisements, you will see someone sitting in a yoga posture, or sitting as if in meditation with eyes closed. People’s opinions have changed.

In earlier days, yoga and meditation was thought as not to be for normal people. That is why I had to keep the name of the foundation as The Art of Living, and that was more acceptable. We could never simply just say 'Yoga Sessions'. Yoga is one part of the entire program here at The Art of Living. The whole process is for you to come to know your own self. That was more acceptable than just yoga alone.

Prejudice is a big issue, but time takes care of it. That is why I used to tell our teachers, 'Educate and ignore'.It is also a great development that happened, when our own Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modiji took great efforts to popularize and establish yoga. It is because of his efforts, the United Nations declared 21st of June, which is the longest day of the year as The International Yoga Day. I feel this is a great honor that has been conferred upon yoga, but I feel this alone is not enough. It is more important that it reaches every doorstep in the country and more and more people benefit from it.

Q: Gurudev, Gurudev, how do we handle people who emotionally abuse you?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

If it is physical abuse, then you should just stay away from them. But if it is emotional abuse that you are going through, then it is totally your responsibility. No one can emotionally manipulate you if you do not let them manipulate you. It is as simple as that.If you do not want to be unhappy, no one else can make you unhappy. Just decide for yourself that no matter what happens, I am going to keep my mood and spirit high and I am going to keep smiling. Come what may, I am not going to get bogged down or bow down before anyone else’s tactics. That’s it, finished!Just one sankalpa is enough to get out of it.

Q: Gurudev, Gurudev, how can married people be more dispassionate?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Whenever you have a fight with your spouse, at that time become dispassionate. When what you don't like happens, at that time, become dispassionate.

Dispassion is a part of life, without dispassion life cannot move ahead. Without dispassion there can be no happiness in life, or no contentment in life.

One who is not dispassionate will keep pulling things from the past and re-projecting them into the future. But a dispassionate one will not do this because he always lives in the present moment.

Q: Gurudev, Gurudev, I am a part-time tarot reader and a few people have suggested me to quit. They say that tarot card is a tool that connects us to the lower level spirits. I want to ask you if I should continue or quit.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

If you ask me, you should quit.

Q: Gurudev, Gurudev, what is the secret to happiness?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

The secret to happiness is in being without desires, and in focusing on how you can serve others. The more you serve, the more happiness you will get.Having this feeling, 'I don't want anything for myself, I am contented', bring happiness. And the third thing that brings happiness is wisdom. Without wisdom there is no happiness in life.

Q: Gurudev, In Shiva Purana it is said that anyone who worships Lord Shiva is freed from all sins. Does this mean that corruption begins at the top?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

No! Do you know what corruption is? Corruption is doing that which you don’t wish to be done to you or to your kith and kin. You cannot link pooja (here meaning worshipping Lord Shiva) and corruption.Pooja is a feeling that comes to you out of fullness. Like when a guest comes to your house, you come to the door and receive them. If someone very dear to you is coming to see you, don’t you rush to the train station or the airport to receive them? Does it come out of a feeling of compulsion? You can tell them to call a taxi, but instead you take your vehicle to go and receive them. Why do you do that? What is that feeling? It cannot be called corruption. So pooja means that which comes out of fullness.

In Puranas, many things are written. I’m not an advocate of all the Puranas. Many of them are a means of expression. In fact, the word Purana means a new way of expressing.The Hindi Purana and Sanskrit Purana have totally opposite meanings. In Hindi, Purana means old, and in Sanskrit Purana means very new or modern; it means a different way of expression. Don’t call that as a corruption. God is not so stupid that He waits for you to break a coconut to give you a boon!

All the poojas you do are to express your fullness, not to please God. I think this is a very wrong concept in the world. We think we do things to please God; this is wrong understanding. People fast for many days so that they can please God. You fast to purify your body; you don’t have to fast to please God. This is a wrong understanding.